Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! - Christ has risen!

EASTER CELEBRATION - Colossians 3:1-4

Easter is the greatest celebration of the Christian calendar and Easter Sunday is the culmination of the Paschal Triduum, which started on Thursday evening with the celebration of the Last Supper. On Good Friday, we celebrated the passion and death of Jesus Christ. With his death and ensuing burial, a great silence came over the earth. In this silence pregnant with hope, we are eagerly awaiting the resurrection of Jesus Christ and, then, we will sing a cry of victory - the victory of life over death and love over hatred. Christ has risen and has come forward in triumphant victory. Through his blood shed on the cross, Jesus Christ has wiped away our sins and reconciled us with God. He destroyed division and enmity to bring peace and love.

During these most holy days, we celebrate God’s loving passion for humanity. He created us in his image, thus being the foundation of our dignity and the source of our glory. However, dominated by jealousy, we turned against God and decided to get rid of him and occupy his place. That is the great sin that has enslaved us, leading us to turn against each other. Our hearts became filled with pride, envy and hatred, which brought violence and war., planting chaos where there was harmony. God could have abandoned us to our fate, but he did not because he loved us so much that He sent His Son to live among us, being one like us, that he may redeem us and elevate us to divinity.

At Easter, we celebrate God’s love for us - a merciful love revealed and made present in Jesus Christ. Indeed, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1). For us, Jesus gave his life so that, if we pass through death with him, we will share in the glory of his resurrection.

“Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.” (Col 3:1-4)

“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

  for his love has no end.

Let the sons of Israel say:

  ‘His love has no end.’” (Ps 118:1-2)